Reform In South Africa Research Articles

Enhancing nurse faculty resilience through self-leadership: guidelines for resource mobilization in dynamic academic environments.

The purpose of the study was to develop guidelines for the facilitation of self-leadership in nurse faculty. Of the 12 guidelines developed, this paper discusses the two related to resilience through self-leadership practices, namely: encouraging reliance on internal sources for self-preservation; and strengthening the positive self-image of nurse faculty through management and peer support. An exploratory, sequential mixed-methods design was used to guide the development of guidelines. Enhancing nurse faculty resilience can be achieved by promoting engagement in self-leadership activities. These activities contribute to faculty members' profound satisfaction, confidence in their knowledge, and overall competence. Resilience is enriched through practicing self-leadership in a supportive work environment and plays a crucial role in adapting to significant changes in the work environment. It has been identified as a key factor that facilitates the ability to persist against struggles and challenges in the workplace. The implementation of higher education reforms in South Africa has brought about increased workload, stress, and uncertainties to an already overwhelmed nurse faculty workforce, consisting of mainly female faculty. It is prudent that a supportive environment that empowers nurse faculty well-being and resilience be facilitated to ensure adaptation to a dynamic and competitive nursing education environment.

When law struggles to deliver: Reflections on service delivery law reform in South Africa, 1996–2024

When law struggles to deliver: Reflections on service delivery law reform in South Africa, 1996–2024

The influence of crisis on policy formulation: the case of alcohol regulation in South Africa during COVID-19 (2020-21).

This study contributes to a neglected aspect of health policy analysis: policy formulation processes. Context is central to the policy cycle, yet the influence of crises on policy formulation is underrepresented in the health policy literature in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper analyses a detailed case study of how the COVID-19 crisis influenced policy formulation processes for the regulation of alcohol in South Africa, as part of COVID-19 control measures, in 2020 and 2021. It provides a picture of the policy context, specifically considering the extent to which the crisis influenced the position and power of actors, and policy content. Qualitative data were collected from nine key informant interviews and 127 documents. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. A policy formulation conceptual framework was applied as a lens to describe complex policy formulation processes. The study revealed that the perceived urgency of the pandemic prompted a heightened sense of awareness of alcohol-related trauma as a known, preventable threat to public health system capacity. This enabled a high degree of innovation among decision-makers in the generation of alternative alcohol policy content. Within the context of uncertainty, epistemic and experiential policy learning drove rapid, adaptive cycles of policy formulation, demonstrating the importance of historical and emerging public health evidence in crisis-driven decision-making. Within the context of centralization and limited opportunities for stakeholder participation, non-state actors mobilized to influence policy through the public arena. The paper concludes that crisis-driven policy formulation processes are shaped by abrupt redistributions of power among policy actors and the dynamic interplay of evolving economic, political and public health priorities. Understanding the complexity of the local policy context may allow actors to navigate opportunities for public health-oriented alcohol policy reforms in South Africa and other LMICs.

Does leverage influence the impact of pay gaps on performance in listed retail and mining firms? Evidence from South Africa

PurposeAgency theory motivated this study, posing that leverage mitigates the agency problem. The aim was to examine whether leverage influences the relationship between executive-employee pay gaps (EEPGs) and firm performance. The study was conducted in the mining and retail sectors between 2012 and 2021.Design/methodology/approachTwo EEPGs were featured based on their executive fixed pay and variable incentives accumulation. Proxies of firm performance were headline earnings per share; return on assets; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; and return on stock price. Data were collected from 76 JSE-listed firms in the retail and mining sectors and analysed using the two-step generalised method of moments.FindingsThe results revealed the hybrid implication of the pay gap for firm performance in the retail and mining sectors of South Africa, depending on the performance measures emphasised. More importantly, the study shows that with the moderating effects of leverage, firms can improve their performance while shrinking the pay gap.Practical implicationsThe results have implications for policy addressing income inequality, debt management, executive compensation and regulatory reforms in South Africa concerning productivity and remuneration decisions.Originality/valueThe article provides specific literature for retail and mining industries on pay gaps, shows that it is possible to reduce the pay gap without compromising performance and suggests a new measure of performance that is more attuned to pay gap effect measurement.

South African Land Reforms Under the Auspices of the “Radical Economic Transformation”

Abstract The land question is an emotive issue across the world. At independence, erstwhile colonies adopted land reforms to address colonial imbalances in landholding. South Africa is one such country that has embarked on land reforms with the view to correcting economic imbalances created by the apartheid past. However, land reform in South Africa has not only been slow but has failed to deal with the twin challenges of poverty and inequality. Using qualitative research design and neoclassical theory, this paper investigates South Africa’s land reforms under the auspices of radical economic transformation. The paper argues that the wholesale expropriation of land without compensation does not fit into the obtaining (neoliberal) economic blueprint that has dominated the country over the years. The call for a radical transformation of landholding rights in the country without structural changes in macroeconomic management remains political rhetoric.

THE PLIGHT OF SOUTH AFRICAN WHISTLE-BLOWERS: SEARCHING FOR EFFECTIVE PROTECTION

Daily reports in the media about the extent of corruption in South Africa and the plight of whistle-blowers who dare to report it demonstrates the inadequacy of protective measures in South Africa. The murder of whistle-blower Babita Deokaran saw other whistle-blowers go into hiding, fearing for their own safety, and calls for urgent measures to be implemented to ensure the physical safety of whistle-blowers. The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) contains measures that could be implemented to protect the physical safety of whistle-blowers. Currently, the only legislation specifically protecting whistle-blowers in South Africa is the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA), which only protects against detriment in the workplace. A number of other statutes provide a measure of protection, but they are fragmented and by no means adequate. A legal comparison with the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland and the United States of America (US) may provide guidelines for reform in South Africa. The UK is currently debating the Protection for Whistleblowing Bill (Bill 27) in the House of Lords to improve protection for whistle-blowers. This Bill proposes to sever the required link to employment so that any person reporting wrongdoing will be protected if certain requirements are met. Bill 27 also establishes the Office of the Whistleblower, which has wide-ranging powers to protect whistle-blowers. The Irish Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act 2022 was amended to broaden the definition of “worker” to include persons not previously protected and to establish an Office of the Commissioner similar to the Office of the Whistleblower in Bill 27, although with limited power. Neither the UK nor Ireland requires whistle-blowers to report in good faith; the focus is on the message instead of the messenger. Financial rewards for whistle-blowers in the US have proved to be highly successful and could be implemented in South Africa. It is recommended that physical protection of whistleblowers be prioritised, that a Whistle-Blowers’ Office with wide-ranging powers be established, that protection be extended to persons outside the employment relationship, that whistle-blowers be rewarded for reporting on wrongdoing in prescribed circumstances, that the burden of proof be reversed and that the good faith requirement for protection be dropped.

Rural livelihoods and land reform in South Africa: An intersectional perspective on women's lived experiences

Through racialised discrimination under colonialism and apartheid, black people in South Africa were dispossessed of their land. They were often forced into cheap labour for the new mining economic complex and industrial sector. Land dispossession was thus about economic deprivation, eradication of subsistence agriculture, and degradation of the black communities. This resulted in a racialised unequal land distribution, culminating in historical inequalities and poverty along race lines. The 1994 democratic government introduced the land reform programme. The land reform process took the form of restitution, redistribution, and tenure reform. Women were also earmarked for prioritisation and seeking to redress racial inequalities in land access and ownership. The paper utilises an intersectionality approach to explore women farmers' lived experiences of the land reform programme. The paper argues that intersectionality is suitable for exploring gender, class, and age dynamics necessary for understanding women's lived experiences. Particular attention is paid to how the women gained access to and ownership of land and the unique challenges and constraints they experienced as women of a specific class. The paper further aims to examine whether the amendment of the constitution of South Africa with the inclusion of Land Expropriation Without Compensation will help address gender, class, and age differences in land ownership. The paper draws from existing literature and secondary data on women's involvement in farming and the implementation of the land reform programme in Limpopo Province. This article contributes to the body of knowledge that explores the relationship between gender, land reform, Land Expropriation Without Compensation, and land ownership.

Rethinking curriculum implementation in time of COVID-19 and beyond: lessons learnt from rural science teachers

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the way teaching and learning is carried out in South African schools. Policy decisions to curb the spread of the virus were superficially conceived as a health problem as opposed to an understanding of the interconnectedness of education in society. For teaching and learning to continue, schools were compelled to either rotate their learners or embrace remote teaching. Irrespective of the numerous curriculum reforms, curriculum implementation in South Africa has been in a moribund state with little attention given to rural science teachers. In this article, we explore how science teachers in rural areas implemented the curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic and what lessons could be learnt from their experience to foster the curriculum implementation discussion in South Africa. We used a qualitative research approach and phenomenology as our research methodology. Nine rural science teachers were purposively selected for a semi-structured interview. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. Our findings revealed that the government’s response to the pandemic appeared to have overlooked already existing fundamental problems associated with curriculum implementation in rural areas. We learnt in this study that curriculum implementation is narrowly conceived as a classroom pedagogic exercise. As an implication, there is a need for curriculum implementation reforms in South Africa, one that would consider contextual curriculum theorising and the experiences of rural science teachers.

The Implementation of Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation as tool to enhance Audit Reform in South Africa: A Case of KwaZulu-Natal

Using a quantitative research method, this article examined the perceptions of audit experts concerning the influence of mandatory audit firm rotation on audit reform (AR) in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Data was gathered from 102 audit experts knowledgeable in the field of accounting and auditing from Tier 2 audit firms and two public institutions and used for data analysis. The empirical results of this study were two-fold. Firstly, the descriptive statistics provided a general overview of the respondents’ opinions. The majority of respondents agreed that MAFR implementation would strengthen audit reform, thereby validating the initial position of the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors. In addition, most participants agreed that the ramification of the imposition of additional costs could not be ignored. Moreover, the utilization of SPSS on ordinal logistic regression also found that the probability of a decrease in the progress of audit reforms is significantly higher when mandatory audit firm rotation is in place, and a non-significant positive predictor of mandatory audit firm rotation would increase audit independence. This article contributes to existing knowledge and the continuous discourse on mandatory audit firm rotation rule in South Africa. Conclusively, the study, therefore, recommends that since the research was limited to Kwazulu-Natal, future studies should broadly include registered auditors and academics from institutions and firms in different South African provinces to obtain diverse views about pre-and post-implementation of the rule in 2023 to compare the effects of the policy on audit independence.

Attachment to land: Land Reform and the Anglican Church of Southern Africa

The land and the people are inextricably linked and inter-dependent. Place attachment provides a useful lens through which to examine land reform and people’s attachment to land. Sebastien’s framework of place identity and place dependence is used to appreciate how place attachment is expressed in the ancient biblical texts of Psalm 37 and Matthew’s Beatitudes despite lack of ownership. In contexts of injustice, place attachment was able to provide hope for the disenfranchised. The framework for place attachment is further applied to the more recent context of land reform in South Africa. The lessons from appreciating place attachment and the complexity of land as more than just an economic tradeable asset can provide valuable lessons to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in redressing some of the many injustices of the past by appreciating the complexity of land, contributing to the conversation, and assisting the poor and marginalised as they create opportunities for the sustainable development of church land as responsible stewards fulfilling the Gospel imperative.

Nursing education reform in South Africa: Implications for postgraduate nursing programmes

Training of Specialist Nurses is of critical importance for the continued delivery of quality health services globally and in South Africa. In accordance with international trends, nursing education in South Africa has undergone significant educational reforms in the past few years. The aim of this paper is to critically reflect on current nursing education reform in South Africa and the implications for the postgraduate diploma in nursing programmes. The paper highlights some of the challenges encountered with the development, accreditation and implementation of the new nursing postgraduate diploma programmes. Successful nursing education reform requires collaborative and proactive conversations between all stakeholders before changes are made to existing nursing categories and skills mix, during the development of new programme frameworks, during programme development and after implementation of the reform strategies.

Navigating the complexities of the adaptation right in copyright law: Addressing ambiguities, gaps and the need for reforms in South Africa

As a pervasive feature of modern society, the adaptation right in the context of infringement and fair dealing has frequently been a subject of heated debate for several years. However, the current Copyright Act 98 of 1978 does not adequately address either aspect. The power disparity between copyright owners and users makes it difficult for the user to determine when it is appropriate to pay for permission and when to use the work without permission, resulting in numerous legal debates over what is considered lawful or permissible use. Moreover, the complexities of copyright law and its application in the context of the various forms of adaptation set out in the Copyright Act (ie arrangement, transcription, translation and transformation) remain largely undefined, leaving those attempting to create a work of adaptation or resolve a dispute over one in a state of considerable uncertainty. Consequently, there are numerous gaps in South Africa’s legal system concerning adaptations and their role in legal proceedings. This is exacerbated by the absence of case law meant to provide clarification. Additionally, the exceptions and restrictions associated with the adaptation right are extremely limited. Blind SA v Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition and the almost decade-long debate about the Copyright Amendment Bill indicate a need for reform in South Africa’s legal system concerning adaptations and their role in legal proceedings.

Toward adaptive water governance: the role of systemic feedbacks for learning and adaptation in the eastern transboundary rivers of South Africa

This paper contributes to scholarship on adaptive water governance (AWG), following policy reforms in South Africa, through a focus on systemic feedbacks for learning and adaptation as critical aspects of AWG. We draw insights from three innovative and evolving water governance experiments. In 1998 South Africa adopted integrated water resources management (IWRM) as a transformative approach for achieving an equitable, sustainable, and decentralized stakeholder-centered water resources governance: all hallmarks of an enabling environment for a two-decade history of AWG, although not named as such. Progress in AWG is explored by using a longitudinal, evaluative exploration of three cases in two transboundary basins in South Africa, with a focus on the unfolding enabling environment for achieving sustainability and equity. Building on previous work, we present and discuss a range of enablers that are shown to function systemically to support feedbacks and build adaptive capacity and resilience in complex and uncertain river systems. In the Crocodile Basin, meta-governance arrangements that created an enabling space for collaborative experimentation and learning proved critical as feedbacks were progressively strengthened and embedded through evolving social and institutional arrangements. The enabling environment also supported a networked, blended system of stakeholder- and state-led platforms that have co-evolved through experimentation and learning. Despite progress, long-term persistence of action-learning feedbacks appears less certain in the Olifants Basin cases. We suggest that enabling meta-governance arrangements that offer an institutional home within which to embed learning is critical. The need to explore alternative networked governance arrangements and to explicitly manage for feedbacks that enhance learning at multiple scales is emphasized. We conclude with recommendations for future work on AWG, including reconciling differences between AWG and IWRM that originally framed South African reforms.

Shaping Sovereignties: The Role of International Financial Institutions in Constitution-Making

How do international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund influence constitution-making processes? In this essay on Anna Saunders's “Constitution-Making as a Technique of International Law: Reconsidering the Post-war Inheritance,” I argue that the material dimensions of constitution-making are profoundly influenced by the discursive environment that institutions like the World Bank help create for political elites. I show how these institutions operate in opaque ways that are difficult to capture in the results of that constitutional process but serve to facilitate, expand, or contract the options available to constitution-makers to engage with material questions, especially those that involve historic injustice. My argument adds nuance to Saunders's claim that constitution-making traditions display a “relative separation from projects of global economic ordering.” Drawing on an example that Saunders uses, this essay engages with how an international financial institution—the World Bank—acted in a facilitative modality and influenced constitutional history and the current practices of land reform in South Africa since its negotiated transition in 1994. I then show how international financial institutions acted in a more prescriptive modality during the constitution-making processes in Hungary. I choose these countries as examples due to their canonical status for studying the influence of international assistance for constitution-making in the post-1991 moment. What these examples show is that while international financial institutions can guide “post-sovereign” constitution-making states toward better integration into the global economic framework, the sustainability of their constitutional arrangements often depends on broader domestic consensus.

Using COVID-19 to Address Environmental Threats to Health and Leverage for Prison Reform in South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe

Abstract Health rights of prisoners has long been a neglected political issue in Africa, where over one million people are detained, and almost half of whom are in pre-trial detention. African prisons constitute high-risk environments for communicable disease transmission. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the public health literature on African prison responses focused on preparedness as it related to testing capacity, quarantine practices and personal protective measures to mitigate disease spread. This article combines the right to health as narrowly defined by a prisoner’s right to access non-discriminatory equivalent health care, with a broader focus on assessing normative standards of detention. A comparative legal realist assessment of prison operations in South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe during COVID-19 state disaster measures is presented, focusing on the environmental determinants of health (ventilation, minimum floor space, water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition) in prisons. It reveals the inherent tensions in ensuring a balance between respecting the fundamental rights of people living and working in prisons, ensuring adequate environmental health standards and mitigating disease during public health emergencies. Despite insufficient government resourcing and inadequate coverage of COVID-19 responses, few severe outbreaks were reported. This could be due to lack of testing, reporting or other factors (asymptomatic infection, acquired immunity). Prison congestion and unrest however affected prisoners and staff fearful of hazardous living and occupational health conditions. COVID-19 as public health emergency amplifies the need to address systemic deficits in infrastructure, resourcing and efficiency of criminal justice systems. Policy level and pragmatic recommendations for enhanced human rights practice are outlined.

Progressive or regressive rape case law? Tshabalala v S; Ntuli v S 2020 2 SACR 38 CC

The Constitutional Court’s decision in Tshabalala v S; Ntuli v S 2020 2 SACR 38 CC is undoubtedly a step in the right direction towards rape law reform in South Africa, however, this article challenges the court’s decision to extend the application of the common law doctrine to common law rape. It is argued that the court could have highlighted the power dynamics at play during the commission of rape without denouncing instrumentality as a central element of the crime. This article further argues that the Constitutional Court, in developing common law rape, should have taken into account that rape is a conduct/instrumental crime under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment 32 of 2007. Instead, the judgment now has the effect of creating different elements for common law rape, in cases where there is more than one perpetrator.

An Exploration of Youth Political Disengagement in the City of Cape Town

The Electoral Commission of SA shows that only over eight million out of more than 26.2-million registered voters voted in the 2021 local government elections. This is a cause for concern when this figure is compared with other elections, which amounted to a preliminary turnout of about 30.5% by Monday 01 November 2021 at 21h00. Thus, the lower voter turnout is arguably a true reflection of the citizens frustration with and distrust of politicians. This study aims to explore the socio-economic factors that contributed to young people’s apathy towards politics and discouraged them to engage in voting during COVID-19 and to suggest both short- and long-term solutions to address the youth political disengagement in South Africa. The qualitative approach was adopted in this study, followed by a convenient sample of 20 youths. Individual interviews was used to collect data. The collected data was anlysed through thematic analysis. The finding revealed that socio-economic factors such as nation-wide lockdown COVID-19 restrictions, youth unemployment, electoral system, poverty prevented young people from participating to political engagement. Accordingly, this study recommends for multifaceted electoral reforms in South Africa that will give voters the power to hold elected representatives accountable and provide clear details of who should hold a representative office.
 
 Received: 2 July 2022 / Accepted: 11 October 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022

Copyright Reform in South Africa: Two Joint Academic Opinions on the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B 2017

South Africa is in the process of reforming its copyright law, attempting to update and align it with constitutional rights and existing and prospective international treaty obligations. With the adoption of the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017] by both Houses of Parliament in March 2019, the apartheid-era Copyright Act of 1978 had almost successfully been amended, when the President of the Republic withheld his assent to the Bill referring it back to Parliament citing reservations about its constitutionality. Following calls for public comment by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the President's reservations, a coalition of copyright and constitutional law experts, convinced of the constitutionality of the Bill, submitted two legal opinions to the Committee. The two opinions presented in this contribution underline the importance of copyright reform, as envisaged in the Bill, to bringing South African copyright law into the digital age and realising several constitutional rights including the rights to education, cultural participation, language, freedom of expression, and access to knowledge of everyone, without discrimination.

An economy-wide impact assessment of agriculture land reform in South Africa

South Africa has been battling with getting land reform right since the advent of democratic rule in 1994 The need to expedite land reform in the country has given rise to a number of radical approaches, including the topic and controversial expropriation of land without compensation discourse. The simulation results presented in this paper provide nuanced policy options for land redistribution in South Africa in the face of the looming expropriation of land without compensation. The analysis in this paper is specific to agricultural land as opposed to land in general. We carried out scenario simulation through Computable General Equilibrium approach using the modified University of Pretoria General Equilibrium Model (UPGEM), which is solved using GEMPACK solution software. Our simulation revealed that there would be adjustment costs regardless of the option(s) chosen. The Inclusive Scenario came up as the most suitable policy option in terms of minimal adjustment costs and allowing the sector to continue to grow, albeit at a lower rate compared to the status quo. Given that agricultural land reform is imperative in South Africa, policy makers should opt for the policy option that is least disruptive to the economy while achieving the desired outcome of more equitable agricultural land ownership and broader participation in the agricultural sector by the majority in the country. Thus, the Inclusive Scenario was found to be the most suitable policy option for agriculture land reform in South Africa.

Prospects for Negotiation as a Means of Undoing the Gordian Knot of Just Land Reform in South Africa

Abstract Creative and courageous negotiations between 1990 and 1994 enabled South African leaders to end apartheid and manage the first phase of a transition to a constitutional democracy. Land was a key issue in the struggle for democracy, but after thirty years remains unresolved. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution affords protection for property rights but also commits the government to land reform by way of restitution or redress of the disadvantaged who suffered through dispossession following the 1913 Land Act. The failure of government’s three-track system to deliver on the goals it set for transfer of land from white to black ownership has strengthened demands for radical change. This article explores the prospects of negotiation as a means for resolving obstacles to progress, including the problem of competing notions of justice. New levels of engagement between stakeholders enabling a sense of justness in the process and outcome are required.